Directed By:Andrew Bujalski
Written By:Andrew Bujalski
Computer Chess
Metascore
Generally Favorable
74
User score
Generally Favorable
7.1
My Score
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Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
81% Positive
21 Reviews
21 Reviews
12% Mixed
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
8% Negative
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
Jul 19, 2013
100
The endlessly surprising, often riotously funny Computer Chess basks in the details of a group of men who, at a key point in history, are asking themselves not only if they can accomplish something, but why, and what it means to their current generation.
Jul 18, 2013
90
There’s even a shadowy hanger-on (played by novelist and journalist Jim Lewis) who may be a drug dealer or a CIA-NSA-type spook or both. That’s just one of the many ways that this profound, peculiar work of genius, this half-comic portrait of the present in embryo within the past, reverberates with hidden meanings and a questing intelligence.
User score
Generally Favorable
70% Positive
14 Ratings
14 Ratings
15% Mixed
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
15% Negative
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
Oct 14, 2013
9
It's a comedy there's actually a few big laughs, but not until near the end, so it's mainly more of a slow-burning thing. It's also at least partially a mumblecore film, which I didn't even realise. Wiley Wiggins looks a lot different when he's not animated and 10 years older. So if you don't like that, you're probably not going to like this. And I think you'd have to know something about chess to get it, but probably not much. I'm not sure how much the director knows about chess, but he has one of the characters perform a knight tour, so I'm guessing at least something. (Actually the closest thing I'd probably compare it to is Look Around You, but slightly less surreal at least at the start)
Sep 29, 2013
3
Unfortunately the director appeared to have very little knowledge of his own subject matter. If you're looking forward to seeing a strange disjointed dream-like tale that just happens to feature computer chess programmers, then this is. If you want a movie about chess programmers in the late-1970's, look elsewhere.
Jul 25, 2013
88
Shot on a vintage Portapak video camera that actually predates the movie’s early-eighties setting and painstakingly crafted to resemble an analog artifact from a bygone era, Computer Chess is, ironically, a comedy about technological innovation.
Jul 16, 2013
80
What’s past is prescient, and what it all means is beside the point. Let’s just say Bujalski has made a prankishly out-of-time movie about that other AI: mankind.
Jul 25, 2013
75
At a certain point, Bujalski - the mumblecore meister, gleefully pushing the envelope of credulity here - jettisons the mock-doc pretense for a Christopher Guest-like glimpse into a strange subculture of the everyday.
Jul 18, 2013
60
Better to stick with his slightly weird, ultra-focused nerds, who toil away on something strange and special, simply for the beauty of it.
Jul 18, 2013
25
Even for a mumblecore film, Computer Chess is weak stuff, a punitively dull chunk of quirk that is about, and feels like, being stuck in a motel with a gaggle of programming nerds for a weekend.
Jan 22, 2014
2
Just read all the Critics reviews and what a bunch of drivel. They just slop together mumbo jumbo to sound like they know something others don't. This movie is dreadful. Black and white with effects to make it look shot on an old camera, fuzzy and odd. The story and character interaction is boring bland and unimaginative. No laughs despite this being called a comedy, whats funny is that this movie was made. This is some hard core drug addicts boring dream turned into 1.5 hours of cr*p!
Production Company:
- Computer Chess
Release Date:Jul 17, 2013
Duration:1 h 32 m
Tagline:An artificially intelligent comedy from the director of Funny Ha Ha and Mutual Appreciation.
Awards
Sundance Film Festival
• 1 Win & 2 Nominations
Film Independent Spirit Awards
• 2 Nominations
Indiewire Critics' Poll
• 2 Nominations
